Apple alleges Facebook for Recording Data

Apple says
Facebook will not be able to distribute an app for iPhones through
which it paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their
phone and web use.

After
closing door for Facebook’s data collecting app, Apple has not let
the social media giant sidestep Apple’s app store and its tighter
rules on privacy.

The tech
blog TechCrunch reported late Tuesday that Facebook was paying people
about USD 20 a month to install and use the Facebook Research app.
But Facebook says the data collection is being done with permission.
And the company has a history of defining “permission” loosely
and obscuring what data it collects.

“I don’t think they
make it very clear to users precisely what level of access they were
granting when they gave permission,” mobile app security researcher
Will Strafach said Wednesday.

“There is simply no way the
users understood this.”

He said Facebook’s claim that users
understood the scope of data collection was “muddying the waters.”

Facebook
clarifies that only 5 percent of the app users are teens and the
teens have parental permission. Anyways, the revelation is yet
another dark spot on Facebook’s track record on privacy and could
invite further regulatory scrutiny.

And it has
been only a few weeks after court documents revealed that Facebook
allowed children to rack up huge bills on digital games and that it
had rejected recommendations for addressing the issue on the fear of
hurting revenue growth.

As of now,
the app is available for Android phones. But, it is not available on
Google’s Play Store.

Google had
not given any comment on this.

Apple
alleged that Facebook was distributing Facebook Research through an
internal-distribution mechanism meant for company employees, not
outsiders. Apple has taken away that capability.

As per the
TechCrunch, Google was using the same privileged access to Apple’s
mobile operating system for a market-research app, Screenwise Meter.
However, Google had disabled the app on Apple devices and apologized
for its “mistake.”

As per
Google, it had always been “upfront with users” about how it used
data collected by the app, which offered users points that could be
used for gift cards once accumulated.

Unlike
Facebook Research app, Google said it’s Screenwise Meter app never
asked users to let the company circumvent network encryption, meaning
it is far less intrusive.

Facebook is
still allowed to distribute apps through Apple’s app store, though
such apps are reviewed by Apple ahead of time.

And Apple’s
move Wednesday limits Facebook’s ability to test those apps —
including core apps such as Facebook and Instagram — before they
are released through the app store.

Facebook
previously had to pull an app called Onavo Protect out of Apple’s app
store owing to stricter requirements.

But
Strafach, who dismantled the Facebook Research app on TechCrunch’s
behalf, told that the app was mostly Onavo repackaged and rebranded,
as the two apps shared about 98 percent of their codes.

As of
Wednesday, a disclosure form on Betabound, one of the services that
distributed Facebook Research, announced that by installing Facebook
Research, they are allowing Facebook to collect a wide range of data.

The data
collected by the app includes, information on apps users have
installed, when they use them and what they do on them. Along with
these data, data is also collected on how other people interact with
users and their content within those apps, according to the
disclosure.

Betabound
also warned that Facebook through the app might have taken
information even when the app or web browser is encrypted.

Strafach
said digital identities like emails, social media activities, private
messages and just about anything else could be intercepted. As per
him, the only data safe from snooping are from services, such as
Signal and Apple’s iMessage that fully encrypt messages before
transmission, a method known as end-to-end encryption.

Strafach,
who is CEO of Guardian Mobile Firewall, said he was shocked to be
aware that Facebook was caught red-handed violating Apple’s trust.

He said such traffic-capturing tools are only supposed to be
used for trusted partners to use internally. Instead, he said
Facebook was scooping up and storing all incoming and outgoing data
traffic from unaware and misinformed members of the public — in an
app geared toward teenagers.

“This is very flagrantly not
allowed,” Strafach said. “It’s mind-blowing how defiant
Facebook was acting.”

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